Psychosocial risk management

Health and safety risks to workers include both physical and psychological injury risk. In relation to work a psychosocial risk is an adverse workplace interaction or condition of work that compromises your health and wellbeing.

A psychologically healthy and safe workplace is defined as one that:

promotes your mental health and wellbeing
protects mental health by reducing work-related risk factors, and
works to prevent mental illness and injury from occurring.

In general, undertaking work activities are accepted to be good for your psychological and physical wellbeing. However, there are aspects of work that, if not appropriately managed, have the potential to negatively affect an individual’s mental health, sense of wellbeing, physical health, as well as the effectiveness of an organization to fulfil its operational requirements.

Workplace factors that may contribute to psychological injuries include

elements of the work environment
management practices
the way that work is organised or designed.

Types of psychosocial hazards

The following list provides some quick guides on the types of psychosocial hazards and good practice tips:

For more information about psychological safety and the types of psychosocial risks, read the UQ psychological safety and wellbeing guide.

Managing psychosocial risks

Psychosocial risks must be managed in the same systematic way as other workplace health and safety risks. The Managing the risk of psychosocial hazards at work Code of Practice 2022 provides practical guidance on how to meet obligations under the WHS Act (2011) in relation to psychosocial risk management.

The Code emphasises the importance of applying the hierarchy of controls to work-related psychosocial hazards, as you would with physical hazards. This ensures higher order- or more effective- control measures are implemented in the first instance wherever possible rather than relying predominantly on methods such as adminstrative controls. All of these steps must be supported by consultation.

Psychosocial Hazards- Guidance Material for Managers

There are a number of resources to support local areas with effective psychosocial risk management.

Psychosocial Risk Assessment

Workplace Health and Safety Queensland (WHSQ) provides a template Psychosocial Risk Assessment tool that can be applied in local areas. Other resources include:

UQ Tip Sheet: Psychosocial Risk Assessment
Psychosocial Risk Assessment Supporting tool
Example: Brief Psychosocial Risk Assessment
Enterprise Goverance and Risk: Risk Matrix

People at Work

The People at Work program is a risk management process developed to identify, assess and manage psychosocial hazards.

This approach follows a five step process to identify, assess and control risks to psychological health at work. Part of this approach is implementing the People at Work survey in work areas. This survey is a validated psychosocial risk assessment survey and assesses psychosocial risks and factors.

Taking Action-Example Controls

WHSQ has produced a helpful guideline that outlines control measures to support eliminating or minimising psychosocial hazards.

Reporting psychosocial hazards and incidents

All psychosocial hazards and incidents should be reported in UQ Safe. You should also raise concerns with your immediate supervisor or, if this is not possible a Human Resources or Safety representative. For more information, including details on additional referral and reporting options, please see the reporting psychosocial hazards and incidents webpage.

Other supports and interventions

Ideally, work related factors influencing your psychological wellbeing should be addressed at the primary or organisational level. However, in addition to managing psychosocial risk, best practice for mentally healthy workplaces also includes:

promotion of individual health and wellbeing
early intervention for staff with health factors impacting on work
support, recovery and return to work options.

Our UQ resources include: